Ole Miss basketball collapses down stretch vs. Auburn in first home loss of season
OXFORD ― Cutting through the noise and energy inside a thumping SJB Pavilion on Saturday, the battle that decided Ole Miss basketball’s Auburn rematch was waged under the rim.
Once again, the Tigers won it emphatically.
Auburn’s physicality earned it 14 offensive rebounds that became 15 second-chance points on the way to a 91-77 victory, the Rebels' first home loss this season. In total, the No. 16 Tigers outrebounded Ole Miss by a margin of 16 and outscored the Rebels 44-32 in the paint.
The effort copied the formula from the Tigers’ 82-59 destruction of Ole Miss two weeks ago. The Rebels played well enough in the other facets of the game to take a 44-35 lead into halftime, but Auburn's physical superiority began to make a difference in the second half.
By the 15-minute mark of the half, the Rebels' comfortable lead had shriveled up. And once Auburn restored parity, star big man Johni Broome ensured the Tigers pulled away.
Broome scored 11 of his 15 points in a five-minute stretch beginning at the 8:54 mark. By the time he cooled off, the Tigers had a double-digit lead. They outscored Ole Miss 56-33 in the second half.
Ole Miss basketball forced to play shorthanded in the post
Part of the Rebels’ difficulty hanging with Auburn (18-4 7-2 SEC) in the post is attributable to the absence of 7-foot-5 center Jamarion Sharp, an important backup to starting center Moussa Cisse. An Ole Miss spokesperson said he missed the game due to a non-COVID illness.
Cisse played 24 minutes ― well above his season average. When he wasn’t on the floor, the Rebels (18-4, 5-4) often opted for a smaller lineup that had little hope of limiting Auburn’s interior advantage.
During one first-half stretch, Auburn shredded the Rebels' undersized defense for an easy bucket at the rim, then grabbed offensive rebounds that led to 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions.
After trusting true freshman forward Rashaud Marshall to play nine minutes, with the other bigs in foul trouble, in the win over Mississippi State on Tuesday, coach Chris Beard played Marshall for just two minutes against Auburn.
Allen Flanigan and Matthew Murrell duo leads Ole Miss
Allen Flanigan, who played the first four seasons of his career with the Tigers before transferring to Ole Miss last offseason, was held to just 3-of-10 shooting in his return to Auburn two weeks ago.
He was better on Saturday, shooting 6-for-15 for 20 points. Matthew Murrell joined him in delivering his typical brand of scoring contribution, adding 18 points.
Forward Jaemyn Brakefield was having a nice game until he picked up his fourth foul with less than eight minutes to play. The Rebels missed his scoring presence at the 4-spot while he sat until the four-minute mark. By the time he returned, Auburn had turned a slim advantage into a double-digit lead.
Up next
Ole Miss will head on the road to face South Carolina on Tuesday (5:30 p.m. CT, SEC Network).
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: How a second-half collapse doomed Ole Miss basketball vs. Auburn
